Honey Ice Cream

This is the great thing about my Mom. Mother's Day was just upon us, and while I should be the one showering her with presents for being the amazing mother that she is and always has been, she is sending me gifts for being the mother of her grandchildren. While I did send her a gift, flowers, and a yet-to-be-delivered package of fun things, I think she still topped me by getting me not just one present, but two, off my Amazon wish list. One was a cast iron skillet, and the other was an ice cream maker!! I must be turning into my Mother - because I spent Mother's Day showering my own kids with goodies and gifts. In the end, we just want our children to be happy. I am most certainly one proud daughter to be able to say that I am turning into my Mother.

I think I've mentioned before that I could live without ice cream. Now that I can make it myself - why would I ever want to?! Plus I'm not just making ice cream - I want to make gelato, sorbetto, freezes, fro-yo, etc. Perfect for summer. Plus the family loves frozen treats. I wanted my first recipe to be a pretty basic one just to see how the machine worked and to taste some good, pure ingredients in my ice cream. This honey ice cream recipe was perfect because not only did it use honey as the sweetener, but it also used whole vanilla beans, which I had left over from making my extract anyway. I love seeing the little black specks in the finished product - and the taste is amazing!

I think we'll be eating a lot more ice cream in the months to come. It is cool, wet, and you can make it however you want. So get ready, here I go!

Something you should know about me is I really don't like reading directions. I can usually figure things out on my own. In this case, however, that trait bit me in the behind because I was pretty gung-ho about making ice cream one day, just to discover I had to freeze the main compartment for 24 hours!! So I made my cream mixture a good day ahead of time. Oh well, I guess that gave the vanilla a good amount of time to infuse the milk and cream. So if you get an ice cream maker - wash it, and then get the main compartment in the freezer!

I used this recipe from Thank Heavens blog. I only used one vanilla bean and I didn't think the ice cream needed any additional honey on top. Then again, I like subtly sweet things.

You start by heating up the cream, milk, honey, and vanilla beans (with the seeds scraped out)

Gavyn had a blast watching the ice cream being made. He watched it the whole 25 minutes it churned. 

Then after the mixture is completely cool, you put it in the machine and let it go to work! If you just put the cream mixture in the freezer, you would basically get a cream ice cube.

 I strained the vanilla pods out - they are tough. I squished out the tiny vanilla beans though!

Here is the ice cream after churning for 25 minutes. It is now creamy, cold, and has expanded from both freezing and having some air worked into it. It smelled so good.

And here is the first taste! It is a hit all around.

Honey Ice Cream

1 vanilla bean
2 cups cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup honey

Cut the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds  Put the seeds and the pods into a pot with the cream, milk, and honey. Heat it until it is just about to start bubbling, then take it off the heat. Let it sit for 20 minutes or so and then put it in the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours or over night. It should be completely cold! Strain out the vanilla pod. Add the mixture to your ice cream maker and churn as per the directions for your particular maker. Place in a suitable container and keep in the freezer. It is soft at first but firms up more as it freezes some more. Serve and enjoy!